Book Review: This Is How The Mona Lisa Was Saved During World War Two

A new book reveals how Jacques Jaujard worked out a modus vivendi with the Nazis of civil co-existence which helped him to oversee the evacuation of Louvre’s treasures including the Mona Lisa (pictured being returned to Louvre in 1945) during World War II. He was able to protect thousands of cultural masterpieces from destruction

Daily Mail: Quiet man who saved the Mona Lisa from the Nazis’ clutches: Fascinating account of the thousands of French masterpieces saved during World War II

* A new book reveals how the Louvre’s treasures were protected in World War II
* Jacques Jaujard ensured items were kept safe from bombs, damp and the Nazis
* He had items including the Mona Lisa evacuated out of Paris during 1939
* Dukes in the South and West of France sheltered the cultural items in chateaux
* However the Nazi's destroyed some 500 masterpieces including work by Picaso

Reading Hamlet at school, I was taught that the delaying habit is a bad one. This new book, about how the Louvre’s priceless treasures were protected during the German occupation of France in World War II, utterly contradicts that theory.

It was through the delaying tactics of a self-effacing civil servant called Jacques Jaujard that the precious objects we most associate with the Louvre — the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, the French crown jewels, as well as thousands of other items — were saved from destruction through bombing or damp.

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CSN Editor: A truly fascinating story.

3000 Years Of Art In Just 3 Minutes

Kotte: 3000 years of art in just three minutes

This short film from 1968, set to Classical Gas, shows 3000 years of fine art in just three minutes. As the final frame of the film says:

You have just had all of the Great Art of the World indelibly etched in your brain. You are now cultured.

As mesmerizing as the film is, especially for 1968, the backstory is perhaps even more interesting. Mason Williams, who wrote and recorded Classical Gas, saw this film by UCLA film student Dan McLaughlin and arranged, with McLaughlin’s permission, to have the original soundtrack replaced with his song and to have it aired on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour on CBS, then the number one show on TV in America.

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CSN Editor: Love the music. What is amazing is that this video/movie was done in 1968.

Australian Aboriginal Rock Art Is 28,000 Years Old

Art on the ceiling of the shelter Narwala Gabarnmang. Credit: University of Southern Queensland

Aboriginal Rock Art Is 28,000 Years Old -- Cosmos/AFP

SYDNEY: Aboriginal rock art found in remote Australia has been dated at 28,000 years old, experts have said, prompting new speculation that indigenous communities were among the world's most advanced.

Archaeologists picked up the fragment in inaccessible wilderness in Arnhem Land in the country's north a year ago, and recent carbon dating of its charcoal drawing has placed it among some of the oldest art on the planet.

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My Comment: Early man was not so backwards after-all.

The World's Oldest Cave Art

A look inside the Altamira Cave in northern Spain

Red Dot Becomes 'Oldest Cave Art' -- BBC

Red dots, hand stencils and animal figures represent the oldest examples yet found of cave art in Europe.

The symbols on the walls at 11 Spanish locations, including the World Heritage sites of Altamira, El Castillo and Tito Bustillo have long been recognised for their antiquity.

But researchers have now used refined dating techniques to get a more accurate determination of their ages.

One motif - a faint red dot - is said to be more than 40,000 years old.

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My Comment: Just think about it .... art that has survived 40,000 years old.

Were Neanderthals The First Cave Painters?

In El Castillo cave, hand stencils join a red disk (not pictured) that may be Earth's oldest cave art. Photograph courtesy Pedro Saura via Science/AAAS

World's Oldest Cave Art Found—Made By Neanderthals? -- National Geographic

"It adds to evidence Neanderthals were not a distinct species," archaeologist says.

Prehistoric dots and crimson hand stencils on Spanish cave walls are now the world's oldest known cave art, according to new dating results—perhaps the best evidence yet that Neanderthals were Earth's first cave painters.

If that's the case, the discovery narrows the cultural distance between us and Neanderthals—and fuels the argument, at least for one scientist, that the heavy-browed humans were not a separate species but only another race.

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My Comment: Cave art that is tens of thousands of years old .... quite incredible when you think about it.

Location Of Lost Leonardo Da Vinci Painting Found?

Threading the endoscope into the Vasari wall to find signs of the lost Leonardo painting "The Battle of Anghiari" in Florence's Palazzo Vecchio. (Credit: Dave Yoder)

Data Support Theory On Location Of Lost Leonardo Da Vinci Painting -- Science Daily

ScienceDaily (Mar. 13, 2012) — Evidence uncovered during research conducted in Florence's Palazzo Vecchio late last year appears to support the theory that a lost Leonardo da Vinci painting existed on the east wall of the Hall of the 500, behind Giorgio Vasari's mural "The Battle of Marciano." The data supporting the theoretical location of the da Vinci painting "The Battle of Anghiari" was obtained through the use of an endoscopic probe that was inserted through the wall on which the Vasari fresco was painted. The probe was fitted with a camera and allowed a team of researchers, led by scientist Maurizio Seracini, to see what was behind the Vasari and gather samples for further testing.

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My Comment: Why did someone cover over a Leonardo Da Vinci masterpiece? I guess there are some mysteries that we will never know.

View the World's Art Without Leaving Home

From ABC News:

Google Partners With 17 International Museums for Art Project.

Next time you want to get yourself some culture, you won't need to battle the crowds at a museum. You won't even need to leave the house.

Google today announced its Art Project, which lets users tour 17 of the world's top art museums -- virtually.

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My Comment: Sorry .... but it is not the same experience.

Six Ways That Artists Hack Your Brain

From New Scientist:

Since humankind first put brush to canvas, artists have played with the mind and the senses to create sublime atmospheres and odd impressions. It is only recently, with a blossoming understanding of the way the brain deconstructs images, that neuroscientists and psychologists have finally begun to understand how these tricks work.

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Lasers Lift Dirt Of Ages From Artworks

The angel on the right of the wall painting has been partially cleaned with a laser

From The BBC:

Physicists have applied the same laser techniques commonly used for tattoo removal to clean several famous works of art, including wall paintings.

Laser cleaning is well established for stone and metal artefacts already.

It has now been successfully applied to the wall paintings of the Sagrestia Vecchia and the Cappella del Manto in Santa Maria della Scala, Siena, Italy.

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Computer Algorithm Identifies Authentic Van Gogh

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Dec. 21, 2009) — Igor Berezhnoy of Tilburg University in the Netherlands has developed computer algorithms to support art historians and other art experts in their visual assessment of paintings. His digital technology is capable of distinguishing a forgery from an authentic Van Gogh based on the painter's characteristic brush work and use of colour.

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Da Vinci's 'Last Supper' Gets Digital Makeover

The bright, vivid colors of the original Last Supper appear in
this digital reconstruction. Courtesy of Leonardo3

From Discovery News:

Modern methods are breathing new life into this more than 500-year-old masterpiece.

Bright, vivid colors adorned Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper, according to a digital reconstruction of the masterpiece at the exhibition "Leonardo da Vinci's Workshop" at Discovery Times Square Exposition in New York.

Painted to provide monks at the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan with something to contemplate during meals, the mural is considered one of da Vinci's greatest works.

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Unique Painting Of A Medici Lord Found

Photo: A depiction of an Italian nobleman holding a gold watch attributed to Tommaso Manzuoli

Science Museum Unearths Unknown Portrait Of Medici Lord -- The Telegraph

Art experts at the Science Museum think they may have found the world's oldest painting to feature a watch in a hitherto unknown picture of a member of the influential Medici family.

Since obtaining the painting 33 years ago, it has simply been known as a depiction of an Italian nobleman holding an intriguing golden timepiece.

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Finger Points To New Da Vinci Art

From BBC:

A new Leonardo da Vinci portrait may have been discovered after a fingerprint found on it seemed similar to another discovered on his work.

A Paris laboratory found the fingerprint is "highly comparable" to one on a da Vinci work in the Vatican.

Antiques Trade Gazette reported that the work, previously catalogued as "German, early 19th Century", could be worth tens of millions of dollars.

The work previously changed hands for around $19,000 (£12,039).

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PICTURES: Prehistoric European Cave Artists Were Female

From National Geographic:

June 16, 2009--Inside France's 25,000-year-old Pech Merle cave, hand stencils surround the famed "Spotted Horses" mural.

For about as long as humans have created works of art, they've also left behind handprints. People began stenciling, painting, or chipping imprints of their hands onto rock walls at least 30,000 years ago.

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Venus figurine sheds light on origins of art by early humans

The figurine, found in 2008 in a cave in Schelklingen, southern Germany is thought to be the world's oldest reproduction of a human. Daniel Maurer / Associated Press

From The L.A. Times:

The 40,000-year-old carved figure of a voluptuous woman was excavated in Germany. It 'radically changes our views of the context and meaning of the earliest Paleolithic art,' its discoverer says.

A 40,000-year-old figurine of a voluptuous woman carved from mammoth ivory and excavated from a cave in southwestern Germany is the oldest known example of three-dimensional or figurative representation of humans and sheds new light on the origins of art, researchers reported Wednesday.

The intricately carved headless figure is at least 5,000 years older than previous examples and dates from shortly after the arrival of modern humans in Europe. It exhibits many of the characteristics of fertility, or Venus, figurines carved millenniums later.

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My Comment: It is hard to believe that such a small carving is 45,000 years old. How did it survive? Was it carved by Homo Sapien or Neanderthal?

Obsession With Naked Women Dates Back 35,000 Years

Side and front views of the Venus of Hohle Fels. Credit: H. Jensen; Copyright University of Tubingen

From Live Science:

If human culture seems obsessed with sex lately, it's nothing new. Archaeologists have discovered the oldest known artistic representation of a woman — a carved ivory statue of a naked female, dating from 35,000 years ago.

The figurine, unearthed in September 2008 in Hohle Fels Cave in southwestern Germany, may be the oldest known example of figurative art, meaning art that is supposed to represent and resemble a real person, animal or object. The discovery could help scientists understand the origins of art and the advent of symbolic thinking, including complicated language.

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Van Gogh Painting Uncovered By New Xray Machine

Rolling back the centuries: Dr Karen Rickers, above, fires the accelerator

From The Telegraph:

A new technique promises to reveal hundreds of masterpieces hidden beneath later works. Harry de Quetteville reports

It amounts to the biggest single art find: a host of unseen works by masters old and new, from Rembrandt to Van Gogh and Picasso. But these works can't be seen on the walls of any gallery or museum. And they are hidden not in a safe or bank vault, but on canvases which the artists themselves painted over.

Now, however, scientists are employing a revolutionary technique to reveal these spectacular images. Using circular particle accelerators, hundreds of metres across, they fire Xrays 10,000 times more powerful than any hospital scan at the priceless paintings.

It is not the first time that art historians have employed science to peer beyond the façade of masterworks. Leonardo, Brueghel and Courbet are some of the many artists whose canvases are emerging as ultra-valuable palimpsests, where the original image has been muffled by over-eager restoration or concealed by over-painting.

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